Blessed Are the Merciful

Bryan Stevenson is an inspirational figure who founded and leads the “Equal Justice Initiative.” The mission statement of his organization reads: “Ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.”

The nuts and bolts of that sweeping statement is this: Stevenson defends those wrongly or unfairly convicted, especially those who are on death row. Troubling, recent studies reveal that since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, for every ten Americans put to death, one death row inmate is exonerated and released.

Stevenson has been instrumental in many of these exonerations, advocating for those convicted without proper representation; those condemned in spite of suffering mental illness; and those sent to death row for crimes committed while they were juveniles. He keeps taking the hardest cases because he believes in both justice…